Previews

XIII

We pay a visit to Ubi Soft for a first-ever hands-on look at XIII's multiplayer, and take a few new levels from the single-player game out for a spin to boot.

Spiffy:

It's already looking ultra-stylish, and the missions we've played have been a cut above typical FPS fare.

Iffy:

Still a lot of polish and cleanup needed -- maybe more than can be done by October?

WHILE WE'VE SEEN Ubi Soft's conspiracy-themed XIII a number of times, the publisher had been pretty secretive with info regarding the game's multiplayer offerings until just recently. For the full scoop, we infiltrated Ubi HQ for some exclusive hands-on multiplayer testing, and also left with a new preview version featuring a few single-player levels we hadn't seen before.

As announced in a press release a few weeks back, all four versions of XIII (PC, Xbox, PS2 and GameCube) will feature multiplayer support, and all will offer basic deathmatch, team deathmatch and capture the flag. Further, three of those versions will contain exclusive features only seen on that platform.

In addition to two-player splitscreen, the PlayStation 2 version of XIII will offer online support for up to 8 players, making it one of PS2's few online shooters to date. In addition to the three core gameplay types, the PS2 will also offer two new modes: "Hunt" and "Power Up". In "Hunt" all players chase a target running around a map, and get points depending on how much damage they can inflict upon it. As the target takes damage, the target gets smaller, making it harder to hit, and touching the target results in death, so players won't want to get too close. The other new mode, "Power Up," will only be available on the PS2, and is basically deathmatch with lots of goofy powerups to pick up. The game has a bit of autobalancing built in - the players with the highest scores will often find themselves with the worst powerups.

The GameCube version of XIII will also contain the new Hunt mode (as well as the three core modes), available via four-player splitscreen - it's the only version of the four without online support (which shouldn't come as much of a shock to Cube owners). The PC version, on the other hand, will support deathmatch, team DM and CTF online for up to 8 players, and a map editor is also planned for the PC version. We weren't able to get many details on the editor, but we're assuming it will be a variant on the stellar UnrealEd (XIII uses the latest Unreal tech), which should give would-be level designers all the ability they need to create lots of killer new levels.

With the basics out of the way, we booted up the Xbox version of XIII, which will support up to 8 players online via Xbox Live, as well as system link and four-player splitscreen. To start, we played some basic deathmatch in a level set in a bank, with three machines linked together. Ubi Soft isn't tampering much with the deathmatch formula -- it plays much like other shooters -- and you can drop in computer-controlled bots to fill out matches.

A shot from one of the Xbox "Sabotage" maps.

The exclusive mode for the Xbox version of XIII is "Sabotage," which is where we spent the bulk of our hands-on time. In this game type, one team attempts to defend a set of control points while the other tries to set explosives on each. (No, it's not Counter-Strike -- you can respawn after you die.) The urban-themed outdoor map - which was on the small side -- worked pretty well with 4 players per side. With lots of tight alleys, it was pretty easy to find the action, with both teams pushing back and forth in a virtual tug-of-war. The bots are fairly smart and accurate - it was actually easier for me to learn the level simply by following the two bots on our team around (they'd obviously played the map before). It's clear there's still some work to be done, though, with clipping and rendering issues in a few areas.

To wrap up our testing, we played a little Capture the Flag, both via system link and 4-player splitscreen. This map was set inside a snowy military installation, and gave us our first multiplayer taste of the RPG, which lets out a nice BAOOM! upon impact. Upon grabbing the enemy flag, a loud clanging alarm goes off within the base, at which point we needed to run for our lives before defenders came running. Overall, the multiplayer modes of XIII aren't revolutionary by any stretch, but considering the game's solid base in Unreal tech and unique visual style, it's not hard to see gamers latching onto it.